Quoting the relevant part from the transcript that Guus shared:
Nicholas: Got it. The first thing I noticed about XMTP is the name,
which reminds me of SMTP. Is there a reason for the relationship? Is
it a reference, first of all? And if so, why?
Matt Galligan: Yeah, it actually it's pretty spot on, but it goes
one nerdy level deeper, which is there was also another protocol
XMPP, sometimes referred to as the Jabber protocol. And when I was
trying to think through what to call this thing, the one thing that
stuck with me was that this was going to be a protocol where any
kind of communication could happen on whether it be email or push
notifications or DMs or whatnot. And so I did the very nerdy thing
of just what are other protocols named? You know, what can make
something feel immediately familiar, though you've never seen it
before? And so looking at SMTP and XMPP, I was like, well, here you
go. Here's two communication protocols. And I smashed them together.
Doesn't go much deeper than that. But, you know, the value being
like we've heard from a lot of folks that, you know, hey, I've never
heard of XMPP before, but I'm assuming that it has to do with
communication. So it serves a purpose for sure.
I am now in agreement with Guus that the usage doesn't seem malicious.
And even if it were, taking an aggressive stance would be less likely to
convince them ;-)
Having read more of the interview transcript, it's clear that the
founder (Matt Gallighan) has used XMPP before and knows what he is
talking about. There was also some thought (though minor) given to the
naming, and it seems to have been chosen as a nod of acknowledgement to
XMPP (and SMTP) rather than a rip-off.
I'm still not entirely happy with the similarity personally, but I can
live with it, and I'm curious to hear what others have to say.
~Badri
